How to Throw a Dead Fish

This is Chapter 4 in a series of articles describing what I believe to be the Most Important Characteristics of Successful Project Managers. These articles are based on material that I presented at a local PMI conference several years ago, and they are motivated by my desire to share a bit of knowledge from my 20+ years of managing projects, interacting closely with stakeholders, and being a stakeholder. 

The Moment of Truth

Chapter 1 in this series discussed the importance of Project Managers “Owning the Project” – that is, to believe and to convey the attitude that they are accountable for everything that happens on their project. This attitude is especially critical during times of project crisis when unforeseen problems arise. There is no more important time for a Project Manager to demonstrate ownership than when delivering bad news to stakeholders. I will show you how to approach this moment of truth and deliver the unwelcome news, or as I call it, “How to Throw a Dead Fish.”

Airborne Fish

If you have ever visited Seattle, it is likely that you stopped by the waterfront area to witness the shenanigans at world famous Pike Place Fish Market. The scene is an open-air market with an outer ring of fish and seafood lying snugly on top of shaved ice. Fishmongers attentively patrol this area, waiting for a customer to buy a fish. Once the customer is hooked (sorry, couldn’t resist), the fishmonger grabs the fish from the ice (always seemingly a very large and heavy fish), winds up, and slings it underhand with all of his might to the inner circle where it is cozily wrapped and readied for hand-off to the customer. Fish also occasionally fly in the opposite direction (from the center) - both tosses are an equally beautiful sight, except when you nearly get your head buzzed on the fly-over.

Now that the scene is set, we must transition from the throwing of actual dead fish to the delivering of bad news to our project stakeholders. Think about it for a minute; there a lot of similarities - both are smelly, slippery to handle, and require careful preparation. It will be helpful to break down our approach into two key areas – timing and content.

Timing

Many years ago, I learned the importance of timing the hard way. It was a typical Thursday morning, except that I came into the office a little earlier than normal to check on some engineering test results and to put the finishing touches on the presentation I was planning to give the stakeholders later that morning. When I stopped in the lab, I saw the long faces and knew that the automated overnight testing did not go as planned. A major defect was discovered, and the root cause was unknown. I gathered the pertinent details, summarized the information in my presentation deck, and went to the stakeholder meeting. After breaking the bad news, the perceived impact to the schedule caused a shockwave through the organization, generating a flurry of emails, follow-up action items, and general frustration over the lack of a clear mitigation strategy. The inefficiency that all this uncertainty caused was stunning; however, the worst part was still to come.  

Several hours after the meeting, I was informed by the engineering team that they had discovered a bug in the automated testing equipment from the prior evening, so the test results were invalid, and it was likely the defect did not exist at all! Yikes! Not only had I botched the delivery of the bad news, but the information I delivered was incorrect. This was not the fault of the engineering team (these types of things happen during R&D-centric projects), but rather, it was a problem with my timing and communication to the stakeholders.

I learned several important lessons from this incident, but most importantly that “fresh” problems should not be presented to stakeholders immediately after discovery. Wisdom must be exercised to determine the correct lag time, considering both the culture of the organization and the context of the project - one to three days may serve as a helpful guideline to start.

Content

Ideally, the lag time from problem discovery to stakeholder disclosure should allow for the team to…

1.      Confirm the accuracy of the data

2.      Perform root cause analysis

3.      Assess mitigation options

4.      Make an initial estimate on project impact

5.      Start mitigation activities

These are the five critical steps toward making the dead fish (bad news) smell better before throwing it to stakeholders. After the problem is discovered, the team should pursue the five steps with a sense of urgency, targeting to mitigate the problem within the original goals of the project (cost, schedule, feature set). It is far too common for Project Managers to immediately jump toward schedule and cost increases prior to a full and aggressive assessment of the problem and mitigation options. Stakeholders will easily sniff this out and push back. The best way for a Project Manager to make a dead fish smell better is to fully mitigate the problem within the confines of the original project constraints – this is the best type of perfume to a stakeholder! If it is not possible to complete all of the above steps prior to disclosure, the Project Manager must, at the very least, lay out a plan and schedule that the team will follow to complete the five steps, including key reporting dates back to the stakeholders. The Project Manager then increases credibility with the stakeholders by pro-actively communicating progress according to the promised reporting dates.

Stakeholders understand that project plans will not always unfold perfectly and that unforeseen bumps in the road will happen. At these critical project junctures, they are looking for a Project Manager to “own the problem,” act with a sense of urgency, and lead the team through the most efficient mitigation process. Throwing a dead fish to stakeholders is never pleasant, but catastrophic mistakes can be avoided by following the five steps. Learning from past mistakes is crucial toward not repeating them - I learned from mine and have successfully applied these five steps many times since. I wish you the best in your Project Management journey and improved communication with your stakeholders.

Continuing the Conversation

Have you been around Project Managers who know how to properly throw a dead fish? What effect did it have on you as a team member or as a stakeholder? Please comment with your thoughts.

Best Regards, Bill

Photo Credits: Pike Place Sign (Bill’s personal photo); Clockface (Olivier26, Royalty Free License from Megapixl.com)